1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing a service for sharing a printing environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with an increase in the processing speed of CPUs (central processing units), apparatuses such as notebook personal computers (hereinafter referred to as PCs) including a CPU as a main component have been used more widely. As the PCs have been used more widely, printers for printing documents created by the PCs have also become popular.
In general, in the office, a PC and a printer are connected via a LAN (local area network), and a printer driver for the printer, which is necessary to use the printer, is installed in the PC.
For instance, if the user of the PC participates in a meeting held in an environment different from the user's office, such as another section or another office, the user carries her/his PC to a meeting room, and prints out a document from a printer located near the meeting room.
In another case, the user may store a document that the user has created using her/his own PC in a recording medium such as an FD (Floppy® disk), and carry the FD to the meeting room. Then, the user may print the document using another user's PC located near the meeting room.
Further, a print server may be employed to use a printer of another section. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for illustrating a conventional system configuration. Referring to FIG. 1, each of Sections A, B, and C includes a WWW (World Wide Web) server (hereinafter also referred to simply as a Web server) 1, a document storage and management server (hereinafter also referred to as a repository server) 2, a print server 4, and printers 6, which are connected via a LAN. The apparatuses of different sections are connected via the Internet with firewalls (FWs) interposed therebetween.
In FIG. 1, each repository server 2 includes a repository service (RS) 12 that provides a document storage and/or management-related service. Each print server 4 includes a document print service 14 that provides a printing-related service.
According to the system configuration of FIG. 1, a person in Section A, for instance, may use the printers 6 of Section B (P-B1 and P-B2) and the printers 6 of Section C (P-C1 and P-C2) using the print server 4 (PS-A).
Further, a system regarding a printing service using a network is disclosed in, for instance, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003-015848 (JP2003-015848).
According to JP2003-015848, a server receives user information and information on a desired printing location from a terminal, and retrieves printers close to the desired printing location. Then, the server returns the candidate printers to the terminal, so that a user selects one of the candidate printers using the terminal. The user transmits printing data to the server, and the server transmits the transmitted printing data to the selected printer.
However, in the above-described case where a user carries her/his PC to a meeting location, there is the trouble of carrying a heavy PC, and there is a concern about battery duration.
Further, there is a problem in that the user has to make various settings in order to connect the carried PC to a printer near the meeting location and/or to a LAN to which the printer is connected.
There is another problem in that the user has to have a printer driver for the printer installed in her/his PC in order to use the printer.
The user has to go through these troublesome work processes before the user can construct a printing environment usable then and there. Therefore, it is not easy to make printing performable.
Further, in the above-described case of carrying a recording medium, there is a problem in that the user may not be able to print a document if the user creates the document with her/his own PC using a special application. This is because the application may not be installed in another user's PC that the user uses to print the document.
In the system configuration of FIG. 1, there is a problem in that in order for a person in Section A to use the printers 6 of Section B (P-B1 and P-B2) and the printers 6 of Section C (P-C1 and P-C2) using the print server 4 (PS-A), information specifying the printers 6 of Section B (P-B1 and P-B2) and the printers 6 of Section C (P-C1 and P-C2), such as their IP addresses and printer names, should be set in the print server 4 (PS-A).
In addition, the printer drivers of the printers 6 of Sections B and C should be installed and information on the printer drivers should be set in the print server 4 so that a person in Section A can use the printers 6 of Sections B and C.
Therefore, according to the conventional system as shown in FIG. 1, if a new printer is added to another section (for instance, Section B), information specifying the newly added printer and information on the printer driver of the newly added printer should be set in the print server 4 of Section A so that a person in Section A can use the newly added printer. Further, if information specifying a printer, such as an IP address, is changed because of a layout change in another section (for instance, Section B), the settings in Section A should also be changed. Thus, information on changes should be exchanged among sections. For this and other reasons, as the system expands, information to be managed increases, so that there is a problem in that actual system implementation is difficult.
Further, according to the conventional system as shown in FIG. 1, the multiple printers 6 of the other sections (Section B and C) are connected to the single print server 4 (PS-A) of Section A, for instance. Therefore, as many communication channels as the number of available printers 6 of the other sections exist between the print server 4 (PS-A) and the available printers 6 of the other sections. On the other hand, the security of the communication channels should be protected communication channel by communication channel. Accordingly, there is also a problem in terms of security.
Further, according to the above-described system of JP2003-015848, as the system expands, the number of managed printers also increases to adversely affect retrieval speed. Further, changes in printer locations or installation of a new printer due to a layout change or shop relocation requires modification of or addition to data (for instance, information on printer addresses, printer names, and printer drivers) in a server. Thus, there is a problem in that actual system implementation is difficult.
Further, according to the above-described system of JP2003-015848, there is a problem in that even when a printer has failed or is occupied by another person printing out hundreds of sheets of paper, it is not easy to change the printer and perform printing using another printer.